House of Representatives Annual Report 2007-08

The work of Output Group 1.3 (Committee Services) is performed by the Committee Office. The office supports parliamentary committees in discharging their responsibilities of parliamentary consideration of policy and legislation and scrutiny of government.

The expenses for the provision of services by Output Group 1.3 in 2007–08 was $10.29 million, which was $0.9 million less than the budget allocation of $11.8 million. Committee Services financial resources are shown in Table 1. Staff levels by location are shown at Appendix 10.

Performance

Committees in the Forty-first and Forty-second parliaments

The 2007–08 year saw the Committee Office work through the end of the Forty-first Parliament and the commencement of the Forty-second.

At the start of the 2007–08 year, nine secretariats provided support to thirteen House committees and eight joint standing committees. Thirty-five committee reports generated by these committees were presented in 2007–08 before the House was dissolved on 17 October 2007. A number of committees were extremely productive during the lead-up to the election, working on outstanding inquiries, conducting new short-term inquiries and tabling reports prior to dissolution of the House.

When committees were re-established in the Forty-second Parliament, a number of changes were made. With two House standing committees merging to form the House Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Innovation,[4] the number of investigatory committees decreased from twenty-one to twenty and, consequently, the number of secretariats supporting committees was also reduced, from nine to eight.

As well, changes in the government’s portfolio structure and priorities resulted in changes to the titles and subject coverage of other committees. Of the twenty committees supported by the Committee Office, twelve are House committees and eight are joint committees.

Committees supported by the Committee Office in the Forty-first and Forty-second parliaments are shown in Table 9.

Note: Other House committees mainly concerned with the domestic operations of the House are supported by Output Group 1.1; for details, see Output Group 1.1.

The House of Representatives Economics Committee conducts a public hearing with the Reserve Bank of Australia, 4 April 2008.

Committee activity

The committees were established by 18 February 2008, with all members appointed by 11 March 2008. Committees, once established, took little time to commence inquiry work, with twelve committees undertaking thirty-seven inquiries by the end of March, many with concurrent inquiries. These early inquiries were generated from referrals from the House; ministerial referrals or statutory requirements—however, committees also undertook additional activity through bills inquiries referred to joint committees from the Senate. Four bills inquiries were referred in the Autumn and Winter 2008 sittings, compared with one referral in the preceding parliament. Three of the four bills inquiries were referred by the Senate, the fourth was an exposure draft referred by a minister.

The key function of committee secretariats is support for inquiries. During 2007–08, the committees supported by the Committee Office presented fifty-one reports. At 30 June 2008, forty-one inquiries were ongoing. The inquiry-related activities of committees are summarised at Appendix 3.

Improved scrutiny of treaty actions

In the department’s 2006–07 annual report, the development of a new procedure for the consideration of tacit acceptance of amendments to multilateral treaties by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) was discussed. As envisaged, the procedure was implemented early in
2007–08.

Implementation involved the government tabling several treaty actions under a new category, known as Category 3. Category 3 treaty actions are identifiably minor treaty actions that are regarded as not having a significant impact on the national interest. The procedure was initially developed and intended to deal with amendments to multilateral treaties that come into force under tacit acceptance procedures, the amendments being mainly minor/technical ones to existing treaties. The new category also allows for the inclusion of a slightly wider range of treaty actions. Category 3 treaty actions are tabled with a one-page Explanatory Statement. The Treaties Committee has the discretion to formally inquire into Category 3 treaty actions or indicate its acceptance of them without a formal inquiry and report.

The government tabled Category 3 treaty actions on two occasions late in the Forty-first Parliament, on 15 August (four treaty actions) and 18 September 2007 (one treaty action). The practice has continued in the Forty-second Parliament, with one Category 3 treaty action being tabled on 14 May 2008. In respect of each of these treaty actions, JSCOT determined not to hold formal inquiries and agreed that binding treaty action could be taken. However, minor treaty actions that are controversial or that appear not to be technical but to deal with more substantive issues may be subject to a formal inquiry at JSCOT’s discretion.

The new procedure upholds the right of the Parliament, and JSCOT, to be informed of every treaty action taken by the government that is legally binding on Australia. However, it also recognises that many minor treaty actions may not warrant the expense and administrative burden that preparing a National Interest Analysis and conducting a full JSCOT inquiry involves.

Twentieth anniversary of the House of Representatives committee system

In September 1987, the House established a system of nine general-purpose standing committees that, together with the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, allowed the House to consider, reflect and report upon the full range of activity by the Commonwealth Government. Prior to that, House committees were established on an ad hoc basis.

The department marked the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the committee system with a one-day seminar held at the Parliament in February 2008. The date was chosen to avoid the election period, when many participants would not have been available. Speakers at the seminar included former and current members, academics and departmental staff. The seminar considered achievements and challenges, community participation, member education, and future directions for House committees.

The seminar was attended by over a hundred people including members and staff of the federal, state and territory parliaments—including the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia—as well as academics, including one from New Zealand. The papers and transcripts from the seminar can be viewed at http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/20_anniversary/index.htm.

The seminar was followed by a day-long workshop on parliamentary committees convened by the Parliamentary Studies Centre of the Australian National University.

Committee support

The year 2007–08 illustrates the cyclical nature of work with parliamentary committees, and the House of Representatives as a whole, and the challenges that brings in providing effective support in a cost-effective way. At the beginning of the financial year, there was a relatively high degree of activity as committees worked hard to complete inquiries before the dissolution of the House. This was followed by a longer-than-average period (more than four months) during which there was no committee activity at all. The final part of the year saw the re-establishment of committees with almost entirely new memberships and leaderships, as a result of the change of government, and an enthusiasm to undertake significant work. The challenges for the department are in providing adequate support to meet the peak demand while ensuring that staff are occupied meaningfully when normal inquiry work ceases and, at the same time, managing costs.

The House of Representatives Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee conducted a roundtable on constitutional reform on 1 May 2008.

Staff development

During the election period, twenty departmental staff (eighteen from the Committee Office) were provided with the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge through mobility assignments with other organisations. Under these assignments, staff are able to work elsewhere for a period of up to three months, at the expense of the department. They are required to complete development objectives for the assignment and receive a performance assessment from the host organisation. Staff were placed with federal, state and territory government agencies, commercial firms, universities and non-government organisations as well as United Nations organisations overseas. This program has been in place for several election periods and has proved highly beneficial for the department, individual staff and the host organisations.

The election period opportunity was also taken to develop and conduct an off-site training day for committee staff focusing on the committee inquiry process and understanding the parliamentary context. All the presenters were operational committee and other departmental staff. This was the first time in many years that consolidated off-site training has been provided specifically for committee staff. Follow-up sessions are planned over the course of the current parliament.

As a result of the department’s partnership with the Parliamentary Studies Centre at the Australian National University, the election period presented a rare opportunity for committee staff to undertake some research, reflection and analysis to prepare papers on various aspects of the operation of parliamentary committees. Some of these papers were contributed to the seminar commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the House of Representatives committee system. This enabled staff perspectives to complement academic study of the parliament.

Outcomes from breastfeeding inquiry

In August 2007, the Standing Committee on Health and Ageing presented the report on its inquiry into breastfeeding, The Best Start: Report on the Inquiry into the Health Benefits of Breastfeeding. The report made twenty-two recommendations to assist Australian women to exclusively breastfeed their infants until six months of age.

One of the report’s recommendations was for appropriate measures to be taken to enable the formal accreditation of Parliament House, by the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA), as a breastfeeding-friendly workplace. The Presiding Officers agreed to the recommendation in March 2008. Given that multiple employers operate within Parliament House, implementing the recommendation for accreditation of a building, rather than of a single employer, proved difficult to accommodate within the ABA framework. Instead, the commitment to accredit was restricted to the three parliamentary departments, the Department of the House of Representatives, the Department of the Senate and the Department of Parliamentary Services, which constitute the largest employers.

Accreditation of the parliamentary departments as breastfeeding-friendly workplaces is anticipated to occur in the 2008–09 financial year.

Preparation for the new parliament

The election period was also used to undertake a range of project and administrative tasks, including review of operational manuals, committee information documents and other material. A team of administrative staff were involved in a major project archiving committee records, reported below.

The Committee Office also played a role in supporting the establishment of committees in the new parliament through a review of relevant standing orders and establishing resolutions, and preparation of advice on options and processes for both government and opposition.

Following the restructuring of the secretariats to accommodate the new range of committees, much work was undertaken to negotiate placement options with staff and ensure sufficient support was in place in time for the initial meetings of the committees. Intensive recruitment action has taken place to fill positions following natural attrition prior to and through the election period.

Staff flexibility

For some years, the Committee Office has pursued the objective of improving flexibility of staffing arrangements to better meet both the cyclical nature of the workload and the needs of staff. Some of the continuing measures supported include permanent part-time work, work from home, use of a temporary employment register, offering placements to participants in public sector graduate programs, an administrative trainee scheme, and use of secondees from other agencies to provide subject expertise and temporary supplementation. Graduates and secondees gain an understanding of the parliamentary and committee processes that can be valuable when they return to their home department.

The first half of 2008 has seen a marked increase in the sharing of staffing resources between secretariats. This has been driven by the initial uneven activity rates of committees in the new parliament and the exceptionally high activity levels that have emerged in several secretariats. Informal and highly flexible sharing and support between secretariats has proved efficient and productive, with the additional benefit of enhancing versatility and knowledge sharing among the affected staff.

Improving performance

Members’ survey

In May and June 2008 a random selection of thirty current and eight former members of parliament were asked to participate in the department’s annual survey of members. The survey provides feedback to the Committee Office, as well as all other offices, from their major stakeholders on levels of satisfaction with committee support services. It supplements on-going feedback from members in the course of committee operations.

The survey was conducted confidentially with an option to participate in a confidential interview with a departmental executive officer. Twenty-two current members responded to the survey (thirteen in
2006–07), six of whom participated in an interview. One former member responded to the survey.

There was a very high level of satisfaction reported on the overall services and support members received from the department. The majority of responses to committee service satisfaction yielded an extremely satisfied or highly satisfied response. Details of the survey findings are at Appendix 11.

CommDocs

The web-based electronic document dissemination system for committees, CommDocs, was introduced in the Forty-first Parliament and, at the start of the Forty-second Parliament, all investigatory committees operated with it. This included the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, which had previously not participated in the system due to specific confidentiality requirements. These committees now utilise the system for private meeting and public hearing briefing material and draft reports. Classified material considered by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security is excluded from the CommDocs domain in the same way as in camera documents of other committees. Acceptance of the system by members has been very positive.

The success of the CommDocs system led to its being adopted, at the commencement of the Forty-second Parliament, by the four domestic committees—Publications, Petitions, Procedure, and Privileges and Members’ Interests. There has also been interest in the similar utilisation of Microsoft SharePoint (the platform from which CommDocs was developed) by the Department of the Senate and parliamentary committee offices overseas.

Records management and archiving

Following successful trials in 2006–07 of an electronic system of transferring committee records to the National Archives of Australia, the system was implemented in 2007–08. This necessitated liaison between staff in the Committee Office and the department’s Records Management Unit, who, as a team, provided instruction and coordination to secretariat staff on the implementation of the new measures. A significant volume of records was archived over the parliamentary recess as a result of this innovative project and the dedication of the staff who dealt with a significant backlog. Nearly 4,000 records were sentenced under the House’s records disposal authority, with 300 boxes of committee records transferred to the National Archives of Australia and approximately 2,300 committee files appropriately sorted, boxed and stored on-site. This represents a considerable achievement and places the department in a good position to manage its records efficiently in the future.

Staff working on this project also ensured the record-keeping arrangements within the building were effective and appropriate. These on-site records were centrally controlled through the TRIM records management system. Committee Office staff continue to monitor the state of on-site storage facilities, including categorisation, temperature and humidity control and the sufficiency of the location.

Outlook

The commencement of the Forty-second Parliament has seen some new trends or changing emphases emerging. These include the tendency for at least some committees to undertake concurrent inquiries or impose very tight deadlines, some potentially innovative practices and possibly a higher level of legislation inquiries than we have seen since the mid-1990s.

If these trends continue, there will be some challenges for the department in providing the level of service required to adequately support this level of activity while also ensuring that our employment practices and conditions remain attractive in a competitive employment market and nurture flexibility and versatility among our staff. The tightening financial situation will also present a challenge should these high levels of activity continue. Committee secretaries will need to monitor expenditure increasingly carefully and ensure our practices are as efficient as possible.

As reported in last year’s report, some members have expressed discomfort with the level of staff mobility evident in recent years and, with it, the need to regularly establish professional relationships each time new staff are assigned to a committee. The department plans to continue to use the Liaison Committee of Chairs and Deputy Chairs as a mechanism to discuss staffing and budget matters with members. This group has agreed to meet more regularly and will provide an opportunity for the department to keep members informed about these issues and seek their input on priorities and needs. The first meeting for the Forty-second Parliament was held in June 2008 and a briefing on resourcing issues was provided.

[4] The former committees were the Standing Committee on Industry and Resources and the Standing Committee on Science and Innovation.

Annual Report 2007–08

Output Group 1.3 — Committee services

OUTPUT GROUP 1.3

INTERMEDIATE OUTCOME

OUTCOME

Description